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90urnal o 0 inion:
'f--- P,,, I00eader$ " 00]ournal:
Drive your bus •
• cou,a Don't waste tlme
Not a hurtful argument with name-calling and sulking and
people afraid of wading in but a give-and-take leading to some
agreement on what's bes for the children.
Shelton has always been a great place to grow up and
go to school. It has its advantages and disadvantages,
but not many who live here would prefer a big-city envi-
ronment. However, like most other places, it could use
some improvement in education.
We've all read the test statistics. They're not pretty. On the
standardized tests, local students used to score just above the
national average. The scores have slipped to below average. On
the state's new tests measuring competency, local students are
as woefully lacking as most of those in the rest of the state.
Improvements are mandated. Children will have to
pass competency tests, or else, within a few years. They
won't get a high-school diploma otherwise. It's up to in-
dividual communities to decide how to bring learning
up to standards. And citizens should be active partici-
pants in the discussions. The decisions are not out of
their hands.
At the 25-year reunion of our Shelton High School class, we
had a talk with a classmate who is now a teacher in Seattle.
The state of education is fascinating to us, and we are always
interested in talking to administrators, teachers, parents and
students. We opened with the observation that the kids seem to
be the guinea pigs in experiments testing the latest educational
theory and if they're lucky they'll only have to suffer through
two or three different educational models between kindergar-
ten and the 12th grade. We added that it appeared educators
were determining the direction of education by telling parents
what was best even when some theories seemed stupid.
"Well," she said, "the teachers don't feel like they're
controlling the direction of education, so maybe no-
body's driving the bus."
Nobody's driving the bus?
Parents shouldn't, they mustn't, feel that helpless at
the local level. Especially now, when the Shelton School
District has a Council for the Improvement of Student
Learning just waiting for opinions. The group is formu-
lating recommendations for the school board on all sorts
of policies, including what curriculum changes need to
be made to improve students' competency.
The civil discussion should go back and forth on some of
these educational theories, like the one calling for teachers not
to correct students' spelling in their essays so the kids won't
feel stifled. "When, pray tell, are we allowed to stifle them long
enough to teach them spelling, a crucial part of precise commu-
nication? After we've taught them that spelling doesn't matter?
No, "spell checks" on computers are not going to save
them, any more than a calculator is always available to
a child who never learned h times tables:A few years',
ago, we had to stand by the computer of an intern each
time she spell-checked a story, because when the com-
puter gave her six possibilities for the word that was
spelled wrong, she didn't know which of the six it was.
The discussion should include disenchanted teachers and cit-
izens who have things to say but voice minority opinions. We've
had discussions with teachers who believe mistakes are being
made but who are afraid to speak up. When a high-school
teacher says huge numbers of entering freshmen aren't reading
at their grade level but doesn't want to talk about it for a story,
the fear is that the educator will be in Dutch with the adminis-
tration or that the comment will be perceived as an insult to
primary and mid-school teachers. It shouldn't be an insult if
those teachers are doing their best, following a prescribed cur-
riculum and passing students according to the accepted self-es-
teem theory of education. You could hardly argue that the low-
er grades are filled with bad teachers; more than likely Shel-
ton's standards aren't high enough. The community hasn't de-
manded any more through its school board or from its children.
One of the very things the curriculum council has
been discussing is whether children should be flunked -
ahem, retained in 1999 vernacular - when they don't
meet standards. How far can we go in passing along an
ill-prepared student to the next teacher without having
it affect the education of the rest of the children? A
tough question. Lately we've let the majority suffer for
the minority with something called "social promotion."
We'd like to think it's possible to show children how
much we care about them in a remedial situation in-
stead of setting them up for failure in the next grade
when they haven't mastered this one yet.
The self-esteem movement seems to have gotten a little out
of hand. It starts with everyone on the peewee team getting a
trophy when the team finishes in seventh place and ends with
40 percent of kids in school on the honor roll. How can 40 per-
cent of the children in a grade make the honor roll when only 7
percent of them meet the state's competency standards in all
four areas tested? One would think that at least the honor stu-
dents would have mastered the material.
There's no reason why our students should come back
from their first year of college wishing they'd been
taught more in high school. There's no reason Shelton
High School students should have their grade-point
average highly devalued by the University of Washing-
ton for entrance purposes because of grade inflation
here, The community has the ability to improve the edu-
cation of the college-bound, the "average" students and
the troubled kids, but it must collectively express its
will at its schools, at board meetings, at curriculum
planning sessions and at the polls.
In the long run, higher standards better prepare students for
life That's what some critics of Shelton's standards have been
saying, but a lot of people who are comfortable with the status
uo would like those people to go away. The critics are "elitist."
[n our discussions with those questioning the system, we've
found they care about Shelton and care about the kids here.
They care about the messages we send to our children.
Few civically involved people have any spare time
Lhese days, but let's take time for this discussion. It will
pay off.
- CG
age 4- Shelton'-'lason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999
, 0 Editor, The Journal:
to offer us in unspoiled vistas, n0
p00ucl00Te00
Get Saddam on his throne
By DAVE BARRY
Since nobody else has been
able to, I came up with a plan for
dealing with Saddam Hussein.
As you know if you pay atten-
tion to foreign affairs, Saddam
Hussein is the head honcho of
Iraq, which may or may not be
the same country as Iran. We
hate Saddam because he's always
going on TV and smirking and
saying things about us. We're not
sure what he says, because he de-
liberately speaks in a foreign lan-
guage, but a classified Central In-
telligence Agency analysis recent-
ly leaked to The New York Times
said, "We think one of the words
is 'wiener heads.'"
Every few months we, as a na-
tion, just get FED UP with Sad-
dam, and we fire a batch of
hightech, extremely accurate mis-
siles - supplied by concerned tax-
payers for roughly $i million per
missile - at strategic buildings in
Iraq. Then our leaders display
aerial 'p0tdiphs shoin that
wetlaVb destrbyed tlese ' build-
ings, vanquished them, really
kicked their butts. This makes
everybody feel better for 25
minutes, then we see Saddam on
the tube AGAIN, wearing his'stu-
pid beret, rubbing us the wrong
way, until finally we just can't
STAND it any more and we
whack some MORE Iraqi build-
ings.
Perhaps you're wondering:
"Why are we shooting buildings?
Why don't we aim these extreme-
ly accurate missiles at Saddam?
Or, better yet, why not take care
of the problem by giving the mil-
lion dollars, in unmarked bills, to
an extremely accurate person
OTHER people who happen to be
in the foreign leader's country, es-
pecially if they are inside the
buildings we shoot. But legally we
may not kill the actual foreign
leader personally. This may not
make a ton of sense, but it's feder-
al law, and we must obey it, just
as we must obey other federal
laws that we do not understand.
(Speaking of which, Kenneth
Starr has obtained evidence
strongly indicating that Bill Clin-
ton and Monica Lewinsky DID,
on December 3, 1997, at approx-
imately 4:42 p.m., remove the tag
from a mattress; you will hear
much more on this in the months
and years to come.)
So this is the problem: We can't
shoot Saddam, and it doesn't
seem to bother him when we
shoot his buildings. Is there a so-
lution? Yes. It is a solution that
requires us to unleash a force
that, frankly, most of us would
rather not evem think about,.-per-
haps the most feared, the most
deadly, the mostevil force that
the human race was ever foolish
enough to create. That's right:
plumbing.
I conceived of this plan after
receiving a fascinating document
from alert mechanical engineer
Keith Ritter. The document was
written by Julius Ballanco, presi-
dent of JB Engineering and Code
Consulting; it was published in
the October 1998 issue of PM En-
gineering, and it is entitled
"Violently Fracturing Water
Closets," which I assume I do not
need to tell you would be an ex-
cellent name for a rock band.
"Violently Fracturing Water
china."
Needless to say, this incident
raised a question in Mr. Ballan-
co's mind, namely: Wouldn't "The
Flying Shards" also be an excel-
lent name for a rock band?
No, seriously, the question it
raised was: What caused the wa-
ter closet to fracture violently?
This question led to a series of ex-
periments at (I am not making
any of this up) the Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology in Hoboken,
New Jersey, in which different
amounts of pressurized air were
introduced into a plumbing sys-
tem. The result was several pages
of extremely scientific-looking
charts and graphs, plus a really
cool time-sequence photograph of
a toilet exploding.
Here is the question: We can-
not legally kill a foreign leader,
but does it state, anywhere in our
body of federal law, that we can-
not cause a foreign leader's com-
"'*i !'_,"l'ktt II, I, Iltr %,*11 ' ,i J 1
moae o tracmre womny wmm
he is using it? To answer that
question, I Called the United
States Supreme Court, but it was
Sunday during the NFL playoffs
and nobody answered. I view that
as a ruling in my favor. If the Su-
preme Court had wanted to, it
could easily have had a recording
saying something like, "We are
not in session today, but it is ille-
gal to blow up Saddam Hussein's
toilet."
So I say we get our top military
and plumbing scientists together
at the Stevens Institute of Tech-
nology and develop a high-tech
computerized "smart" air-pres-
sure delivery system targeting
Saddam - or, as he will come to
After reading Mr. Hupp's letter
complaining of Dawes and Diehl
and the supposed "privileged tri-
angle" they have with the Growth
Management Hearings Board, I
found myself first irritated and
then chuckling. First, may I say
that Mr. Dawes and Mr. Diehl are
not alone in their fight against
Mason County's noncompliance
with the Growth Management
Act. These gentlemen have a
strong following. We may not be
as vocal or as diligent as Mr.
Diehl and Mr. Dawes, but we
nonetheless support them in their
efforts to force Mason County into
compliance with the law.
We are those who value Mason
County for its rural character and
appreciate what this county has
traffic snarls and clean mr.
Hupp laments the "hundreds
thousands of man-hours"
during the past eight years
consultants, etc. This is
mention the taxpayers' money
well. Please, Mason County,
wasting this valuable time
money and work to implem
the laws of the state of
ton rather than circumvent
By doing this, we can assure
Mason County remains a top
tourist attraction and a
tion for the wretched
the cities who want nothing
than to escape their
masses. I say hooray for
and Dawes!
Penelope K. Caml
Shel
Do fence me in
Editor, The Journal:
I am writing this letter to ask
the people to have the fence at
Kneeland Park put back up.
There are many, many children
that play there and have picnics
with their families, etc., but it
only takes a second for a small
child to slip away, and First
Street is a busy street, too busy
for that small child to run into af-
ter a rubber ball, etc.
I tried to explain this to the
man at the Shelton Parks
creation Department, but he
it's the parents' responsibility to
keep watch over their
that "the city doesn't want
park to have a fence there
cause they don't want the
looking like a prison."
What about the children?
their safety first? I say so!
Susan Goldsb
Add eighth
Editor, The Journal:
I am very disappointed to see
that the Southside board is not
listening to a professional survey
that they themselves requested.
I still feel that we could have a
wonderful school with an eighth
grade. I have had personal experi-
ence with the middle school and
didn't find that it was as good ed-
ucationally as Southside. This is
n'0t a matter of "letting our kids
spread their wings" and "expe-
rience the havoc of the real
world." They will have plenty of
time for that. I think the extra
year at Southside would allow
them to develop and become
stronger as individuals and better
able to stand up to peer pressure.
If we have an eighth grade we
will not be holding back our stu-
dents. Several people expressed
that our students would not have
access to a sports program. This
is not what school should be
about. It should be what is the
best education that can be provid-
ed to our students. I think that
would be best done in the envi-
ronment that Southside can pro-
a home ec room as well as a
ence lab, and the building
wired for technology. By the
our computer program is
advanced than the Shelton
die School. It is my feeling
we do not deliver on a pro
that was made, the voters
less likely to listen to your
for additional levies in the
The funds are there
The cost of our non-high
and the state funding is
to support the staff necessary:
Could the strong feeling of:
position from the teachers be
cause they have had only
tary students so far and
know how to relate to the
students; are they afraid of
change? The older kids are
"raging hormone monsters"
they are made out to be. I
said that the seventh-grad
have nothing to do but
around. Even at another sob0
there isn't lunchtime entertS
ment. At that age that is all t!
want to do, talk and walk aro
I wish the board members
posing the eighth grade felt d
with a name like Vincent 'Vinny Closets" begins with a chilling be scornfully called behind his vide. If a child wants sports, there ferently. Unfortunately, it see lito
The Polyp' Sarcoma?" story: An individual - described back, "Shard Butt." THAT would are wonderful sport programs my other child will have to e f.
The answer is that, under fed- in the Ballanco article only as "an wipe the smirk off his face and available at the Mason County perience what you think is a .0
eral law, we are not allowed to individual" - flushes a toilet in a cause him to come running to the RecreationalArea. derful and necessary par " h
kill a foreign leader, even if he is high-rise building and is "injured bargaining table! We'd definitelv When the levy was asked for to growing up. By the way, her opt| 11 l
really ticking us off. We can kill by flying shards of vitreous want him to clean up first. - build onto our school, they used ion is that Southside should '| tli
the bait of adding an eighth an eighthgrade. .,| ",eri
grade. That is why the project LindaB;| y
Not another gravel mine Letter astoundin00!l
room was designed to be used as Shel
;,?t li,
Editor, The Journal: Monday through Saturday. There they,,think we, will stand by and h
We are writing in he es of will be great clouds of dust and sa , Oh, well We will fi ht thi Irls
P . . . Y • g s b'ael
reaching all that live and work pollutants m the mr, explosmns until the bitter end. If there is Editor, The Journal: is a wonderful thing to l" ay
along Johns Prairie Road and that will scare our children and anyone else out there also con- We were astounded by Mr. country that guarantees
surrounding neighborhoods. For
those of us who cherish our quiet
rural life, this may be a thing of
the past, for a company is moving
in by the name of McEwen Prair-
ie Surface mine. They plan to
build a sand and gravel mine
with a rock screening and crush-
ing plant.
What this means to us as own-
ers and residents will be a night-
mare, Our quiet community will
be no more with up to 50 trucks
coming and going six days a week
starting from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
What do you call the
date on which you learn
you have to eat pork sau-
mage for six more weeks?
Ground-hog Day.
iii
animals.
That is just a tip of the iceberg.
We have to consider the impact to
our wildlife and the existing pond
there that is full of fish. Our wa-
ter table will be threatened. The
traffic on Johns Prairie Road is
bad now; think of what it will be
in the future.
Why did this company wait two
years to notify only the land own-
er adjacent to this property? Do
cerned, please write to: Mason
County Department of Communi-
ty Development, Attention: Pam
Bennett-Cummings, PO.Box 578.
Shelton, 98584.
They have only given us till
February 17 to reply. Please don't
let this become another Manke
pit!
Richard and Debra Snyder
Shelton
Local milestone
Editor, The Journal:
Your readers undoubtedly no-
ticed that last week The Shelton-
Mason County Journal passed a
milestone in its long history by
publishing the editorial on the fi-
nancing of our schools. It matters
not whether they agreed or dis-
agreed with your stand on the
matter - the significance lies in
the fact you took a stand at all.
For as many decades as memo-
ry serves, The Journal has
studiously avoided any editorial
concern or comment on crucial de-
cisions facing Mason County real-
dents. Obviously many of the
readers enjoyed the humorous di-
atribes reflecting the nation's
woes, but missed the benefit of
any editorial opinion, or even ref-
erence, to our own local problems.
One could now hope the Jour-
nal of Opinion column would con-
tinue to profit by illuminating
and discussing the issues faced at
home. The national controversies
could better be left to our TV sta-
tions and to the Seattle dailies.
R.S. Holt
Union
Brighton's letter to the editor on
January 21, and we appreciated
Mr. Gay's editorial response.
It is difficult to imagine the ex-
periences that could have caused
the writing of such a letter, but it
of speech. It would be even
wonderful if we all
selves in a civil manner.
Kathleen
'
'O€' ' USPS 492-800
.o00our00al
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County Joumal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. ..,j |
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Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 428.4412
Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington
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• ' g $45.00 per year o , --
Gay, editor and publisher. Nmnroom: Carolyn Maddux, managing editor;
Charles
Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city govemment, schools; Mary urD,.
society editor, county govemmant; Sean Hanlon, police, courts, Port of Shalton. AdVe
Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Piedk, ad sales. Front '
Julie Orme, business manager; VIckl Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, bookkeeper;i
Mahony, office assistant. Compoelng room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot B r
Jan Kalllnen, paste-up; Kolean Wood, typesetter and computer system manager; Kan r,,
computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Meyer, proofreader, preSft.
Robert Rodriguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly Riordan, pre.=d
90urnal o 0 inion:
'f--- P,,, I00eader$ " 00]ournal:
Drive your bits •
cou,00 0000,co,,,oo,00oote00 . Don't waste tlme
Not a hurtful argument with name-calling and sulking and
people afraid of wading in but a give-and-take leading to some
agreement on what's bes for the children.
Shelton has always been a great place to grow up and
go to school. It has its advantages and disadvantages,
but not many who live here would prefer a big-city envi-
ronment. However, like most other places, it could use
some improvement in education.
We've all read the test statistics. They're not pretty. On the
standardized tests, local students used to score just above the
national average. The scores have slipped to below average. On
the state's new tests measuring competency, local students are
as woefully lacking as most of those in the rest of the state.
Improvements are mandated. Children will have to
pass competency tests, or else, within a few years. They
won't get a high-school diploma otherwise. It's up to in-
dividual communities to decide how to bring learning
up to standards. And citizens should be active partici-
pants in the discussions. The decisions are not out of
their hands.
At the 25-year reunion of our Shelton High School class, we
had a talk with a classmate who is now a teacher in Seattle.
The state of education is fascinating to us, and we are always
interested in talking to administrators, teachers, parents and
students. We opened with the observation that the kids seem to
be the guinea pigs in experiments testing the latest educational
theory and if they're lucky they'll only have to suffer through
two or three different educational models between kindergar-
ten and the 12th grade. We added that it appeared educators
were determining the direction of education by telling parents
what was best even when some theories seemed stupid.
"Well," she said, "the teachers don't feel like they're
controlling the direction of education, so maybe no-
body's driving the bus."
Nobody's driving the bus?
Parents shouldn't, they mustn't, feel that helpless at
the local level. Especially now, when the Shelton School
District has a Council for the Improvement of Student
Learning just waiting for opinions. The group is formu-
lating recommendations for the school board on all sorts
of policies, including what curriculum changes need to
be made to improve students' competency.
The civil discussion should go back and forth on some of
these educational theories, like the one calling for teachers not
to correct students' spelling in their essays so the kids won't
feel stifled. "When, pray tell, are we allowed to stifle them long
enough to teach them spelling, a crucial part of precise commu-
nication? After we've taught them that spelling doesn't matter?
No, "spell checks" on computers are not going to save
them, any more than a calculator is always available to
a child who never learned h times tables:A few years',
ago, we had to stand by the computer of an intern each
time she spell-checked a story, because when the com-
puter gave her six possibilities for the word that was
spelled wrong, she didn't know which of the six it was.
The discussion should include disenchanted teachers and cit-
izens who have things to say but voice minority opinions. We've
had discussions with teachers who believe mistakes are being
made but who are afraid to speak up. When a high-school
teacher says huge numbers of entering freshmen aren't reading
at their grade level but doesn't want to talk about it for a story,
the fear is that the educator will be in Dutch with the adminis-
tration or that the comment will be perceived as an insult to
primary and mid-school teachers. It shouldn't be an insult if
those teachers are doing their best, following a prescribed cur-
riculum and passing students according to the accepted self-es-
teem theory of education. You could hardly argue that the low-
er grades are filled with bad teachers; more than likely Shel-
ton's standards aren't high enough. The community hasn't de-
manded any more through its school board or from its children.
One of the very things the curriculum council has
been discussing is whether children should be flunked -
ahem, retained in 1999 vernacular - when they don't
meet standards. How far can we go in passing along an
ill-prepared student to the next teacher without having
it affect the education of the rest of the children? A
tough question. Lately we've let the majority suffer for
the minority with something called "social promotion."
We'd like to think it's possible to show children how
much we care about them in a remedial situation in-
stead of setting them up for failure in the next grade
when they haven't mastered this one yet.
The self-esteem movement seems to have gotten a little out
of hand. It starts with everyone on the peewee team getting a
trophy when the team finishes in seventh place and ends with
40 percent of kids in school on the honor roll. How can 40 per-
cent of the children in a grade make the honor roll when only 7
percent of them meet the state's competency standards in all
four areas tested? One would think that at least the honor stu-
dents would have mastered the material.
There's no reason why our students should come back
from their first year of college wishing they'd been
taught more in high school. There's no reason Shelton
High School students should have their grade-point
average highly devalued by the University of Washing-
ton for entrance purposes because of grade inflation
here, The community has the ability to improve the edu-
cation of the college-bound, the "average" students and
the troubled kids, but it must collectively express its
will at its schools, at board meetings, at curriculum
planning sessions and at the polls.
In the long run, higher standards better prepare students for
life That's what some critics of Shelton's standards have been
saying, but a lot of people who are comfortable with the status
uo would like those people to go away. The critics are "elitist."
[n our discussions with those questioning the system, we've
found they care about Shelton and care about the kids here.
They care about the messages we send to our children.
Few civically involved people have any spare time
Lhese days, but let's take time for this discussion. It will
pay off.
- CG
age 4- Shelton'-'lason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999
' Editor, The Journal:
to offer us in unspoiled vistas, n0
p00ucl00Te00
Get Saddam on his throne
By DAVE BARRY
Since nobody else has been
able to, I came up with a plan for
dealing with Saddam Hussein.
As you know if you pay atten-
tion to foreign affairs, Saddam
Hussein is the head honcho of
Iraq, which may or may not be
the same country as Iran. We
hate Saddam because he's always
going on TV and smirking and
saying things about us. We're not
sure what he says, because he de-
liberately speaks in a foreign lan-
guage, but a classified Central In-
telligence Agency analysis recent-
ly leaked to The New York Times
said, "We think one of the words
is 'wiener heads.'"
Every few months we, as a na-
tion, just get FED UP with Sad-
dam, and we fire a batch of
hightech, extremely accurate mis-
siles - supplied by concerned tax-
payers for roughly $i million per
missile - at strategic buildings in
Iraq. Then our leaders display
aerial 'p0tdiphs shoin that
wetlaVb destrbyed tlese ' build-
ings, vanquished them, really
kicked their butts. This makes
everybody feel better for 25
minutes, then we see Saddam on
the tube AGAIN, wearing his'stu-
pid beret, rubbing us the wrong
way, until finally we just can't
STAND it any more and we
whack some MORE Iraqi build-
ings.
Perhaps you're wondering:
"Why are we shooting buildings?
Why don't we aim these extreme-
ly accurate missiles at Saddam?
Or, better yet, why not take care
of the problem by giving the mil-
lion dollars, in unmarked bills, to
an extremely accurate person
OTHER people who happen to be
in the foreign leader's country, es-
pecially if they are inside the
buildings we shoot. But legally we
may not kill the actual foreign
leader personally. This may not
make a ton of sense, but it's feder-
al law, and we must obey it, just
as we must obey other federal
laws that we do not understand.
(Speaking of which, Kenneth
Starr has obtained evidence
strongly indicating that Bill Clin-
ton and Monica Lewinsky DID,
on December 3, 1997, at approx-
imately 4:42 p.m., remove the tag
from a mattress; you will hear
much more on this in the months
and years to come.)
So this is the problem: We can't
shoot Saddam, and it doesn't
seem to bother him when we
shoot his buildings. Is there a so-
lution? Yes. It is a solution that
requires us to unleash a force
that, frankly, most of us would
rather not evem think about .- per-
haps the most feared, the most
deadly, the mostevil force that
the human race was ever foolish
enough to create. That's right:
plumbing.
I conceived of this plan after
receiving a fascinating document
from alert mechanical engineer
Keith Ritter. The document was
written by Julius Ballanco, presi-
dent of JB Engineering and Code
Consulting; it was published in
the October 1998 issue of PM En-
gineering, and it is entitled
"Violently Fracturing Water
Closets," which I assume I do not
need to tell you would be an ex-
cellent name for a rock band.
"Violently Fracturing Water
china."
Needless to say, this incident
raised a question in Mr. Ballan-
co's mind, namely: Wouldn't "The
Flying Shards" also be an excel-
lent name for a rock band?
No, seriously, the question it
raised was: What caused the wa-
ter closet to fracture violently?
This question led to a series of ex-
periments at (I am not making
any of this up) the Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology in Hoboken,
New Jersey, in which different
amounts of pressurized air were
introduced into a plumbing sys-
tem. The result was several pages
of extremely scientific-looking
charts and graphs, plus a really
cool time-sequence photograph of
a toilet exploding.
Here is the question: We can-
not legally kill a foreign leader,
but does it state, anywhere in our
body of federal law, that we can-
not cause a foreign leader's com-
"'*i !'_,"l'ktt II, I, Iltr %,*11 ' ,i J 1
moae o racmre womny wmm
he is using it? To answer that
question, I Called the United
States Supreme Court, but it was
Sunday during the NFL playoffs
and nobody answered. I view that
as a ruling in my favor. If the Su-
preme Court had wanted to, it
could easily have had a recording
saying something like, "We are
not in session today, but it is ille-
gal to blow up Saddam Hussein's
toilet."
So I say we get our top military
and plumbing scientists together
at the Stevens Institute of Tech-
nology and develop a high-tech
computerized "smart" air-pres-
sure delivery system targeting
Saddam - or, as he will come to
After reading Mr. Hupp's letter
complaining of Dawes and Diehl
and the supposed "privileged tri-
angle" they have with the Growth
Management Hearings Board, I
found myself first irritated and
then chuckling. First, may I say
that Mr. Dawes and Mr. Diehl are
not alone in their fight against
Mason County's noncompliance
with the Growth Management
Act. These gentlemen have a
strong following. We may not be
as vocal or as diligent as Mr.
Diehl and Mr. Dawes, but we
nonetheless support them in their
efforts to force Mason County into
compliance with the law.
We are those who value Mason
County for its rural character and
appreciate what this county has
traffic snarls and clean mr.
Hupp laments the "hundreds
thousands of man-hours"
during the past eight years
consultants, etc. This is
mention the taxpayers' money
well. Please, Mason County,
wasting this valuable time
money and work to implem
the laws of the state of
ton rather than circumvent
By doing this, we can assure
Mason County remains a top
tourist attraction and a
tion for the wretched
the cities who want nothing
than to escape their
masses. I say hooray for
and Dawes!
Penelope K. Caml
Shel
Do fence me in
Editor, The Journal:
I am writing this letter to ask
the people to have the fence at
Kneeland Park put back up.
There are many, many children
that play there and have picnics
with their families, etc., but it
only takes a second for a small
child to slip away, and First
Street is a busy street, too busy
for that small child to run into af-
ter a rubber ball, etc.
I tried to explain this to the
man at the Shelton Parks
creation Department, but he
it's the parents' responsibility to
keep watch over their
that "the city doesn't want
park to have a fence there
cause they don't want the
looking like a prison."
What about the children?
their safety first? I say so!
Susan Goldsb
Add eighth
Editor, The Journal:
I am very disappointed to see
that the Southside board is not
listening to a professional survey
that they themselves requested.
I still feel that we could have a
wonderful school with an eighth
grade. I have had personal experi-
ence with the middle school and
didn't find that it was as good ed-
ucationally as Southside. This is
n'0t a matter of "letting our kids
spread their wings" and "expe-
rience the havoc of the real
world." They will have plenty of
time for that. I think the extra
year at Southside would allow
them to develop and become
stronger as individuals and better
able to stand up to peer pressure.
If we have an eighth grade we
will not be holding back our stu-
dents. Several people expressed
that our students would not have
access to a sports program. This
is not what school should be
about. It should be what is the
best education that can be provid-
ed to our students. I think that
would be best done in the envi-
ronment that Southside can pro-
a home ec room as well as a
ence lab, and the building
wired for technology. By the
our computer program is
advanced than the Shelton
die School. It is my feeling
we do not deliver on a pro
that was made, the voters
less likely to listen to your
for additional levies in the
The funds are there
The cost of our non-high
and the state funding is
to support the staff necessary:
Could the strong feeling of:
position from the teachers be
cause they have had only
tary students so far and
know how to relate to the
students; are they afraid of
change? The older kids are
"raging hormone monsters"
they are made out to be. I
said that the seventh-grad
have nothing to do but
around. Even at another sob0
there isn't lunchtime entertS
ment. At that age that is all t!
want to do, talk and walk aro
I wish the board members
posing the eighth grade felt d
with a name like Vincent 'Vinny Closets" begins with a chilling be scornfully called behind his vide. If a child wants sports, there ferently. Unfortunately, it see lito
The Polyp' Sarcoma?" story: An individual - described back, "Shard Butt." THAT would are wonderful sport programs my other child will have to e f.
The answer is that, under fed- in the Ballanco article only as "an wipe the smirk off his face and available at the Mason County perience what you think is a .0
eral law, we are not allowed to individual" - flushes a toilet in a cause him to come running to the RecreationalArea. derful and necessary par " h
kill a foreign leader, even if he is high-rise building and is "injured bargaining table! We'd definitelv When the levy was asked for to growing up. By the way, her opt| 11 l
really ticking us off. We can kill by flying shards of vitreous want him to clean up first. build onto our school, they used ion is that Southside should '| tli
the bait of adding an eighth an eighthgrade. .,| ",eri
grade. That is why the project LindaB;| y
Not another gravel mine Letter astoundin00!l.
room was designed to be used as Shel
;,?t li,
Editor, The Journal: Monday through Saturday. There they,,think we, will stand by and h
We are writing in he es of will be great clouds of dust and sa , Oh, well We will fi ht thi Irls
P . . . Y • g s b'ael
reaching all that live and work pollutants m the mr, explosmns until the bitter end. If there is Editor, The Journal: is a wonderful thing to l" ay
along Johns Prairie Road and that will scare our children and anyone else out there also con- We were astounded by Mr. country that guarantees
surrounding neighborhoods. For
those of us who cherish our quiet
rural life, this may be a thing of
the past, for a company is moving
in by the name of McEwen Prair-
ie Surface mine. They plan to
build a sand and gravel mine
with a rock screening and crush-
ing plant.
What this means to us as own-
ers and residents will be a night-
mare, Our quiet community will
be no more with up to 50 trucks
coming and going six days a week
starting from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
What do you call the
date on which you learn
you have to eat pork sau-
mage for six more weeks?
Ground-hog Day.
HI
animals.
That is just a tip of the iceberg.
We have to consider the impact to
our wildlife and the existing pond
there that is full of fish. Our wa-
ter table will be threatened. The
traffic on Johns Prairie Road is
bad now; think of what it will be
in the future.
Why did this company wait two
years to notify only the land own-
er adjacent to this property? Do
cerned, please write to: Mason
County Department of Communi-
ty Development, Attention: Pam
Bennett-Cummings, PO.Box 578.
Shelton, 98584.
They have only given us till
February 17 to reply. Please don't
let this become another Manke
pit!
Richard and Debra Snyder
Shelton
Local milestone
Editor, The Journal:
Your readers undoubtedly no-
ticed that last week The Shelton-
Mason County Journal passed a
milestone in its long history by
publishing the editorial on the fi-
nancing of our schools. It matters
not whether they agreed or dis-
agreed with your stand on the
matter - the significance lies in
the fact you took a stand at all.
For as many decades as memo-
ry serves, The Journal has
studiously avoided any editorial
concern or comment on crucial de-
cisions facing Mason County real-
dents. Obviously many of the
readers enjoyed the humorous di-
atribes reflecting the nation's
woes, but missed the benefit of
any editorial opinion, or even ref-
erence, to our own local problems.
One could now hope the Jour-
nal of Opinion column would con-
tinue to profit by illuminating
and discussing the issues faced at
home. The national controversies
could better be left to our TV sta-
tions and to the Seattle dailies.
R.S. Holt
Union
Brighton's letter to the editor on
January 21, and we appreciated
Mr. Gay's editorial response.
It is difficult to imagine the ex-
periences that could have caused
the writing of such a letter, but it
of speech. It would be even
wonderful if we all
selves in a civil manner.
Kathleen
'
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Gay, editor and publisher. Nmnroom: Carolyn Maddux, managing editor;
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